Reflection on Finding Florida: The True History of the Sunshine State by T.D. Allman

             This is a book about the history of Florida, mostly in the last 500 years or so since writing was introduced to the modern-day state. The history of Florida since 1500 can be summed up by 200 years of influence from the Caribbean, 250 years of influence from North America, and then 50 years (until modern day) of equilibrium from both. Florida has never really been a major influencer of other places, largely due to its isolation and historically low population. However, that population has boomed in the last 100 years and the isolation is gone. With almost 20 million people now, Florida may soon begin to emit an influence of its own.

               A very positive aspect of this book is that the author has a really good long-term perspective. For example, Allman writes of British victory in the Seven Years’ War, “In 1763, the British were all-triumphant. By 1783 they had lost most of their American colonies.” I think this is a really critical way to see developments in the Americas at the time, as within 20 years, the biggest winner in the region was a loser and in another 20 years, France would lose all her colonies in North America and the Caribbean. In 20 more years, Britain would lose everything it had in the continental interior outside of Canada and the Spanish colonies would declare independence. It was a rapid political change. Allman also has interesting perspective when discussing the Louisiana Purchase. He writes that no such power existed and that Jefferson even drafted a constitutional amendment but never submitted it. He just bought the land without any real power to do so, therefore disregarding the original intent of the document. It’s ironic that even the founders were not originalists. Another interesting point the author makes is that Florida, even North Florida has always been very different from the South because it was a federal government creation, receiving lots of national funds, unlike any other Southern state.

               An interesting part of the book was the Second Seminole War, which ended in 1842 with the deaths of thousands and with thousands more of Seminoles fleeing to Oklahoma in the west. A Third Seminole War was fought from 1855-8 and led to more expulsions. These wars were very bloody, and just counting US federal troops, 1,500 died in the war. That’s several times the number in the Spanish-American War and just 300 short of the Mexican-American War. “Nearly twice as many soldiers died in Florida as were killed subjugating the entire vast area west of the Mississippi,” writes the author.

               A negative feature of the book is the author’s voice. By that I mean the tone he takes often made me feel like he doesn’t like Florida at all and looks down on the state. He also obsessively returns to these tiny battles fought a hundred and fifty years ago by less than a hundred and fifty people to relitigate who lied about what. It really seemed “pedantic.”

               In all, this is a great history of Florida, though I really want to read more about the 20^th century more than anything and will look for more books about Florida during that time in the future.

Miscellaneous Facts:

• The feral pig population of the United States originated in Florida from the herd of explorer Hernando De Soto.
• In Florida, homesteading was illegal, leading to a very unequal society even among the whites.
• Florida was always very unequal. For example: a misdemeanor like brawling meant a 50 cent fine for a rich man’s son and a 100 dollar fine for a countryman.
• Noticing the correlation between heat and Yellow Fever, Dr. John Gorrie invented refrigeration, though he never lived to see it fulfill its true use as making Florida livable. While cooler air didn’t cure Yellow Fever, it made people stay inside more and avoid mosquitos.
• When the state of Florida graduated its first doctor, John F. Kennedy was president…
• The red “X” on the state flag of Florida symbolizes the Confederacy.
• There were three Henrys who were key to the development of Florida: Henry Flagler on the Atlantic Coast, Henry Sanford in Central Florida, and Henry Plant on the Gulf Coast. They all lost money.
• In 1907, Governor Napoleon Bonaparte Broward (of Broward County’s name) proposed to remove every black person from the state.
• Florida is ideal for American space travel because it is the state closest to the equator, where the escape velocity is diminished.
• Florida’s Disneyland is 150 times the size of Disney World in California.
• Disney built two cities so that it could rule itself without taxes, called Bay lake (pop. 47) and Lake Buena Vista (pop. 10). They are considered to be “drainage districts.” Celebration, Florida, where there is an actual Disney-operated city, is unincorporated and the city officials are appointed by Disney, not elected.
• In less than two lifetimes, Florida went from next to nothing to the most densely populate state outside of the BOSNYWASH area.